Unitarian Peace Fellowship

Taking a stand on Cluster Bombs and unexploded ordinance.

The UPF is making a coordinated stand over the coming months to highlight the issue of Cluster Bombs and unexploded ordnance. In a twin pronged attack the UPF is making this topic the focus of its Lent Appeal and of a Motion to placed before the General Assembly in April.

What are cluster munitions?

A cluster munition consists of a canister, containing up to hundreds of smaller submunitions (or "bomblets"), that can be dropped from the air or launched in an artillery shell. These are designed to explode on impact or after a timed delay.

In reality, however, many cluster munitions fail to explode as intended and remain a lethal threat until disturbed. The risk for civilians is further increased because of the wide area (known as a "footprint") covered by bomblets from a single munition.

Cluster munitions, in one form or another, have been used in various conflicts across the world, starting in the Second World War. Areas that have suffered major cluster bomb contamination are parts of Laos and Vietnam, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon.

The Motion to be put before the GA meetings in April is as follows;

That this General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches recognising the suffering caused to civilian populations around the world by the use and indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions, calls upon HM Government to support the call by the International Committee of the Red Cross for a new international humanitarian law agreement to specifically regulate cluster munitions and the implementation of the following humanitarian law agreement to specifically regulate cluster munitions and the implementation of the following three measures by all Nation States;

To immediately end the use of inaccurate and unreliable cluster munitions;
To prohibit the targeting of cluster munitions against any military objective located in a populated area;

To eliminate stocks of inaccurate and unreliable cluster munitions and, pending their destruction, not to transfer such weapons to other countries.

The indiscriminate nature of these weapons mean they are a particular threat to civilians and the economic recovery of societies following conflict.

Recent experience in Kosovo, and before that in the Gulf War, has shown that the exact "footprint," or landing area, of the CBU-87's bomblets is difficult to control and that an initial failure-to-explode rate of some 7 percent can be expected. When the bomblets contained inside cluster bombs fail to explode on contact as intended, they become in effect antipersonnel landmines-volatile and deadly remnants of war that can explode from a simple touch. They have proven to be a serious and long-lasting threat to civilians, soldiers, peacekeepers, and even clearance experts, because of the high initial failure rate of the bomblets, because of the large number typically dispersed over large areas, and because of the difficulty in precisely targeting the bomblets. (Human Rights News)

It is hoped that Unitarians will encourage their representatives to the GA to support the Motion and will themselves support this years Lent Appeal which is for Handicap International which was a co winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. It deals with artificial limbs for those affected by poverty and conflict. It has a particular interest in landmines and cluster bombs.

See Cluster Bombs – One Story on the back page.

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Peaceful Conflict Workshop

On Saturday 21st October 2006 24 people from various walks of life attended a Day Seminar at the Multifaith Centre at the University of Derby led by Dr Brian Walker. There were some who had seen the advert and come along not knowing what to expect, some on there own spiritual journey, welfare workers and many more. It was a joint venture involving the Mutlifaith Centre, Religions for Peace UK and the Unitarian Peace Fellowship and 6 members of the fellowship made up some of the number.

We started the day all sitting in a circle and introducing ourselves and it got off to an interesting start when we were asked to write down on a chart what we considered as positives and negatives in cases of conflict, we then repeated the exercise in relation to violence and peace. It became clear that some things were considered both positive and negative. Things like behaviour and attitude. As the day progressed we split into small groups and it turned into a day of workshops and small discussion groups of which some were and some were not to my particular liking but taken as a whole day it was very successful and informative.

We were invited, again in small groups, to consider issues like global warming and the care of the elderly and what we as individuals could do.

In the information packs we had been issued with were pages of readings and sayings from different religious organisations and we looked through them deciding what had an affinity with how we as individuals felt and most people agreed on the choices which I must admit surprised me considering our different backgrounds.

At the end of the day we sat once again in a circle and were asked what we had learned from the day, the responses were many and varied but as a Unitarian I took the pass option because I hadn't gone to actually learn anything but to spend the day with like minded people discussing peace issues. I have to say thank you to our Secretary Rev. Chris Goacher for organising the day which went I assume according to plan, to we attending there didn't appear to be any hiccups.

Joan Norton.
Chair UPF.

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A Musical Evening with special emphasis on Peace
With musician

Lauren Pelon
At
Rochdale Unitarian Church
Saturday 20th October 2007

Further details to follow

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Cluster Bombs — One Story

Just a month after the hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel ended, Hussein Ali Ahmed Ali was tending a lemon tree in the grounds of his home in Yohmor, southern Lebanon – a home that had been destroyed during the bombing and which he was now rebuilding.

As Hussein (70) touched the tree a cluster bomblet fell out of it onto his head: the blast damaged his skull and blew him across the garden. Miraculously, he survived but the left side of his body is paralysed and he is unable to speak.

"He was a strong man and his spirit was like that of a man in his prime. He was so active and full of energy… actually it has been his strength that saved his life," says Souad, one of Hussein's four daughters.

During the war, Hussein and his wife, Mothmina, fled to Qa'ata, in the mountains. It was a wise decision because during the bombing their house caught fire and their small garden was showered with some 200 cluster submunitions that failed to explode. When the hostilities stopped, Hussein and Mothmina returned home to assess the damage and rebuild their house – and their lives.

The couple started work on the house after de-miners had been in to clear out any unexploded munitions in the ruins of the building and in the garden. The house was already taking shape, but there were busy days ahead, before the winter forced them to stay indoors.

Bomblet in the tree

Early on the morning of 9 September, Hussein and his wife were having coffee in front of the house. He stood up and said to Mothmina that the lemon tree needed pruning.

"He approached the tree and held the branches that he wanted to prune when the bomblet fell on his head. The blast sent him flying towards my mother. For many days we thought he would not make it," says Souad.

This is a common story in southern Lebanon – or not quite: Hussein and Mothmina are getting on in years, their daughters and three sons are grown up, almost all of them are married and have children. Unlike other victims, Hussein no longer has to worry about feeding his children and his 18 grandchildren; he does not have to work in fields infested with unexploded ordnance just so his family can eat.

Despite the ongoing de-mining efforts, large areas of southern Lebanon are still cluttered with deadly cluster submunitions. Farmers cannot get to their olive trees and cattle cannot be taken to any pasturage that the de-miners have not yet visited.

Three months after the incident, Mothmina is absorbed in looking after her mutilated husband. Her face and her gaze are soft, but she doesn't utter a word. Daughter Souad takes care of them both now.

"My mother is no longer the same since she witnessed the explosion," says Souad. "She is traumatized; she seems lost and constantly forgets things."

The UN Mine Action Coordination Centre (MACC) has estimated that up to one million unexploded cluster submunitions remain on the ground in southern Lebanon. According to the UN, nearly 79,000 cluster bomblets had been cleared by December 2006 – but at least a year would be needed to complete the job.

Courtesy of ICRC.

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UPF Newsletter

Taking a stand on Cluster Bombs and unexploded ordinance.